What is the role of waterfront parks in an age of climate change? On March 16th, RPA hosted a Summit for Resilient Waterfront Parks, promoting an exchange of ideas between designers, park administrators, city planners, policy makers, civic leaders and community organizers around how parks along the region’s waterfront can play a role in strategies for resilience.

As New York City’s exposure to severe flooding increases, parks designed for resilience can serve to protect surrounding communities. This summit generated implementable ideas to ensure that the city’s current and future waterfront parks and edges are designed for maximum resilience against climate impacts.

Below are some of the 5‑minute ​‘lightning’ talks presented at the summit, assessing the issues facing waterfront areas from a wide range of perspectives. To see all the videos, visit our Summit for Resilient Waterfront Parks channel on Vimeo.

Gena Wirth (SCAPE Landscape Architecture) – Waterfront Parks? from Regional Plan Association on Vimeo.

Matthijs Bouw (One Architecture) – Resilient Waterfront Parks: It’s Only Just the Beginning from Regional Plan Association on Vimeo.

Ana Fisyak (Rockaway Waterfront Alliance) – A Resilient Rockaway Through the Public Realm from Regional Plan Association on Vimeo.

Dana Getman, SHoP Architects – Challenges & Solutions When Building in a Floodplain from Regional Plan Association on Vimeo.

Tricia Martin (WE Design) – Greenways as Resilient Infrastructure from Regional Plan Association on Vimeo.

This summit was made possible through the generous support of the Lily Auchincloss Foundation. Additional thanks to Steelcase and the staff of the Steelcase WorkLife Center in New York for hosting us in their event space.